Starting today, USCIS will resume premium processing services for all new and pending H-1B petitions. Premium Processing for H-1B Cap applications resumed on January 28, 2019. Premium processing was suspended in September last year to give USCIS a chance to catch up on the backlog of applications. Premium processing costs $1410 and guarantees that USCIS will take adjudicative action on the application within 15 days. If USCIS fails to do so, the agency will return the fee but still expedite the application. Premium processing also guarantees that any RFE or NOID responses will also be adjudicated within 15 days.
For all applications that are currently pending, petitioners can file a Form I-907 Request for Premium Processing Service with the fee payment attached to receive faster response for their applications. This, however, does not guarantee that this service will be available for the upcoming H-1B cap season. USCIS may review their workload later and decide to suspend this service again for cap cases as the new fiscal year cap season starts on April 1. To learn more about the H-1B visa and its requirements, please click here.
